<p>Quick question for my go-to CC’ers. DS#1 just finished his first year of college and is having his tonsils out TOMORROW. We had an appt to meet with the surgeon last Friday but he got stuck in surgery so we had to re-schedule it for today. Of course I’m out of town and DH couldn’t go so the boy went on his own. Bottom line is the ENT doesn’t think DS needs his adenoids out, although of course this was based only on a few questions, and I wasn’t there to say, “Can you at least look at them?”. Back in the day those two went hand-in-hand. I know having them out took me from someone whose snoring you could hear down the block to someone who plain doesn’t snore. Also, DS does not seem to get rested when sleeping–will often complain that even after 10-11 hours he wakes up and is still exhausted.</p>
<p>Anyone with experience of having tonsils removed but not adenoids?</p>
<p>I had tonsils out, but not adenoids–many years ago when I was 12. It wouldn’t hurt to call the doctor today and ask about it. Tell him/her about your son’s restless sleep, and describe your own improvement after you had your adenoids out. </p>
<p>Good luck to your S. Have lots of popsicles ready! (My throat was so terribly sore–I ate nothing but soft-boiled eggs for a week). My older sibs had both tonsils and adenoids taken out by a GP when they were 5–just what they did back then.</p>
<p>Thanks for this. I did call the surgeon and was told adenoids tend to be more of a problem in people under the age of 15. I asked him to look at them when he’s in there anyway, which I believe he will do. (I’ve offered DS pudding/jello/ice cream. He’s claiming he wants to “eat healthy food” while he’s recovering. He suggested yogurt. I see that lasting about .5 days.)</p>
<p>Oh Lord, my daughter had her tonsils/adenoids out during her freshman year of hs. She was out of commission for 2 weeks, and didn’t feel back-to-normal for a month. I really expected her to bounce back after a few days, but apparently the recovery for teenagers is much longer than it is for little kids. Good luck to you and your son.</p>
<p>ngerp - Good luck to your son. He will probably be down and out for 10 or more days. Younger DD had both tonsils and adenoids out at 3 1/2 and was eating regular food that day! But everyone we know who went through this as teens or older took a while to recover.</p>
<p>It’s been almost 2 years since my brief 2 weeks as a third year med student on ENT surgery…but if I remember correctly (and I’m not sure I do), there’s limited evidence to support doing both surgeries as the standard of care. If there’s a reason to take the adenoids out, they’ll do it, but otherwise it simply isn’t just done without reason.</p>
<p>That said…adenoidectomies are not a particularly subtle or elegant surgery. I got to do the adenoidectomy and was literally told by the ENT attending to “just fry the **** out of 'em”.</p>
<p>My brother is an ENT. The surgeries tend to be linked - as noted - in younger children. Removing adenoids is easy and the recovery is minimal. Tonsils are a whole nother story. One recommendation: if you are older, meaning not a child, then you will likely resist the urge to cry in pain. When you wake up, your throat is sore and dry. Kids wake up and cry and that stretches the tissue in the throat - and may produce moisture or spread it. Adults tend to have more complications from bleeding & cracking and that, it seems, relates to the suppression of crying. So one piece of advice is to let it out, give it an “oooowwww” when you wake up with a sore, dry throat and maybe you’ll heal better.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of this. The surgery went well, although the ENT labeled DS’s tonsils “really impressive, particularly the right one–kind of ‘oh my god’ tonsils’.” Guess there had been an abscess behind one. Lots of gross stuff. At my urging the surgeon did look at the adenoids and said they really were okay, so he left them in. Anyway, the boy is doing remarkably well, although I wonder if that was just some post-surgical-pain-med high. He ate three bagels upon coming home and then sent me for Thai food last night. I can’t believe the recovery won’t be worse than yesterday given all of the horror stories I’ve heard about adult tonsillectomy recoveries. He was up and talking and bored most of the day, which I consider good signs. </p>
<p>Really wondering how he’ll be feeling when he wakes up today. . .</p>